Editing Checkers speech (section)

=== Family finances, coat and dog ===
Nixon, continuing to ask skeptical rhetorical questions, indicated that some might feel that even with the opinions, he might have found some way to personally benefit. In response to his own question, he detailed his background and financial situation, beginning with his birth in [[Yorba Linda, California|Yorba Linda]], and the family grocery store in which the Nixon boys helped out. He alluded to his work in college and law school, his service record, and stated that at the end of the war, he and Pat Nixon had $10,000 in savings, all of it patriotically in government bonds. He gave the dollar amounts of small inheritances that the Nixons had received from relatives, before turning to their life in Washington:{{sfn|Morris|1990|pp=830–831}}

{{blockquote |
We lived rather modestly. For four years we lived in an apartment in Parkfairfax, in Alexandria, Virginia. The rent was $80 a month. And we saved for the time that we could buy a house. Now, that was what we took in. What did we do with this money? What do we have today to show for it? This will surprise you, because it is so little, I suppose, as standards generally go, of people in public life.{{sfn|PBS, ''speech text''}}
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[[File:Checkexc.jpg|thumb|250px|Excerpt from the notes from which Nixon delivered the Checkers speech]]

As Nixon discussed their finances, the telecast again showed Pat Nixon, fixedly watching her husband. Pat Nixon later stated that her rapt gaze was because she did not know exactly what he would say, and wanted to hear.{{sfn|Morris|1990|p=831}} Nixon detailed their assets and liabilities: the mortgaged home in Washington; the similarly mortgaged home in California, then occupied by his parents. The loans from his parents and from [[Riggs Bank]]. The borrowed-against life insurance policy on the senator; no insurance on his wife or children. The two-year-old [[Oldsmobile]] and the family furniture, and that he and his wife owned no stocks or bonds.

{{blockquote |
Well, that's about it. That's what we have and that's what we owe. It isn't very much but Pat and I have the satisfaction that every dime that we've got is honestly ours. I should say this—that Pat doesn't have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat. And I always tell her that she'd look good in anything!{{sfn|Morris|1990|p=831}}
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While Nixon made these points, Murray Chotiner "let out shouts of glee" in his screened booth.{{sfn|Morris|1990|p=831}} As Chotiner exulted, Nixon moved ahead with the lines "that would give the speech its name, make it famous, and notorious":{{sfn|Morris|1990|p=832}}

{{blockquote |
One other thing I probably should tell you because if we don't they'll probably be saying this about me too, we did get something—a gift—after the election. A man down in Texas heard Pat on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog. And, believe it or not, the day before we left on this campaign trip we got a message from Union Station in Baltimore saying they had a package for us. We went down to get it. You know what it was?

It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he'd sent all the way from Texas. Black and white spotted. And our little girl—Tricia, the 6-year-old—named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we're gonna keep it.{{sfn|PBS, ''speech text''}}
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Nixon expressed pleasure that Stevenson, whom he termed a man who inherited wealth from his father, could run for president. But people "of modest means" must also get a chance, and he recited the quotation attributed to Lincoln<!-- Lincoln apparently never said it, thus the phrasing here and in the preparation section -->: "Remember Abraham Lincoln, you remember what he said: 'God must have loved the common people—He made so many of them.'"{{efn|name=common people}}